Manchester United and Tottenham both made last-minute offers to sign Vitor Roque, according to the player’s agent Andre Cury.

The 18-year-old completed his €40m (£34m) switch to Barcelona from Athletico Paranaense earlier this week, but Cury claims that the two Premier League teams did try to hijack the deal with astronomical bids:

“We received much bigger offers from Tottenham and Manchester United for Vitor Roque. It was over €100 million. But his career plan is well mapped out and we opted for Barcelona. The moment is not to look at the money but the career.”

Considering United have limited transfer funds, it seems pretty unlikely that they were prepared to pay £85m+ for a teenager, but Cury was involved in negotiations so you can’t completely dismiss his remarks.

Roque had a lot of clubs interested in signing him

In addition to Barca, United and Spurs, the likes of Newcastle and Chelsea were also thought to be keen on signing the Brazilian international, who many believe has a very exciting future in the game.

However, Roque appears to have had his heart set on a move to the Camp Nou from the very start so, even though it appears as if Erik ten Hag’s side did try their best to secure his signature, there was never really any prospect of changing the player’s mind.

United have been looking at other striker targets

The Red Devils are clearly in the market for a new number nine. It was reported on Wednesday that the Manchester club had a bid rejected by Benfica for Goncalo Ramos, although that claim hasn’t been corroborated by more reliable sources.

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Randal Kolo Muani and Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix have also been mentioned as potential options but the number one priority seems to be Atalanta’s Rasmus Hojlund. The Dane is said to be keen on a switch to Old Trafford but he could cost €60m (51m) to €70m (£60m).